SausageMania is pleased to introduce a brand-new recipe: Italian Porcini Sausage! This recipe is really just ordinary Italian fennel sausage with the addition of chopped sun-dried tomatoes and… Porcini Powder. But what is, or are, Porcini anyway?

The Porcini mushroom (Boletus Edulus), also known as the King Bolete, Cep or Steinpilz, is the most prized species of the Boletus genus. It's widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere; it grows in a symbiotic relationship with certain species of trees. The fungus ensheathes the trees' root systems, and breaks down soil constituents into forms readily adsorbed by the trees. In exchange, the trees' root systems provide carbohydrates needed by the fungus. The fruit body of the fungus is the mushroom, which sprouts in the late summer and early fall. Sometimes, that is: some years they are plentiful and other years almost none sprout. It's a mystery as to what the proper conditions are for a good crop, as fungi march to a different drummer.

Porcini are prized by chefs around the globe for their taste and versatility: they can be prepared fresh or dried and then re-constituted. It takes about 10 lbs of fresh Porcini to make a pound of dried Porcini, which is why they are so expensive: in the U.S., dried Porcini can cost up to $50/lb. "Lesser species" of Boletus mushrooms can be almost as good as the King Bolete, and should not be ignored. In fact, some people prefer the "Lesser Boletes" because they have an earthier flavor.

In North America there is only one Boletus species that is supposedly "poisonous," but not deadly: it is said to cause intestinal upset. Its appearance is unique and unmistakeable (see below), and can never be mistaken for "good" Boletes.

In SausageMania's Alaska, Porcini and related Boletus species can be found from late July through early September, depending on conditions: they thrive both in mixed birch-spruce forests as well as on the Alpine tundra, where they tend to grow in association with drawf birch.

We'll digress for a few moments to give you some idea of the harvesting and preparation of wild Boletes.

A Leccinum species: a close relative of the King Bolete. Choice edibility, more earthy than Kings; some gourmets prefer the earthiness.

A Huge "Siamese Sextuplet" mushroom. Such large, multiple clusters are not common.

Here you can see the six caps that comprise this compound Leccinum mushroom. This single fruit is good enough for a soup in itself!

A Bad Bolete: Boletus Satanus. Causes nausea and vomiting, but is not lethal. Easy to spot!

The flesh is light chartreuse; when cut with a knife or touched, it immediately "bruises blue."

Slicing mushrooms for the dryer. Rubber gloves are a good idea, as Boletes will turn your fingers black.

The dryer set up and running. This one can hold about 15 lbs of Boletes.

About 12 oz. of dried product. Note the full bags in the background.

O.K., so now you've picked, cleaned and dried your boletes, or you bought them at the store for Big Bucks. In either case, they are easy to grind into a powder with a spice grinder, a mortar and pestle or even a blender. Grind a cup or so — whatever you don't use in the sausage can be kept and added to soups or sauces: porcini powder is quite potent! Then follow this recipe, which is geared for 1 lb. of sausage mix. Simply multiply each amount by your actual weight of mix to get the proper quantities, or else download the SausageMania Excel Sausage SpreadsheetHERE.

Here's a screenshot of SausageMania's free Excel spreadsheet Ingredient Calculator. Just enter the weight, in pounds, of your ground sausage mix (the orange number), and all the other ingredients will instantly be calculated. Colums I, II and III are all the same quantities, but in different units, for ease of use. For example, in Row25, "Salt," it shows 8 tablespoons, or 1/2 cup. Use the cup measurement for the larger-quantity ingredients. (Because the spreadsheet "rounds down," very small quantities, such as "Cayenne pepper" in Row 14, show up as "zero" cups.) Just use the most convenient column.

Please
note that the amount of salt for all of SausageMania's recipes is rather
reduced by current sausage making standards. You can always add salt to your
mixture, but if it's too salty, there's nothing you can do other than
add more ground meat  usually a lot more! That's why it's always
a good idea to fry up a few sample patties first, before doing all the work
of filling the casings.

SausageMania may be the first to post a recipe for porcini sasuage, but the concept is far from original. A few days ago, Federal Express delivered us a box of Italian salamis and dry sausages from Salumeria Biellese, sent all the way from the East Coast to Alaska, as a gift from a nephew.

One of the many delicious items was Salame con Porcini, with whole chunks of porcini. Salumeria Biellese, a Manhattan landmark since 1925, now at the corner of 8th Avenue and 29th Street, offers a wide range of traditional Italian salami, dried sausage and other pork, poultry, lamb and beef products, including rarely-found guanciale, made from cured, seasoned pork jowl. Salumeria Biellese's pork comes exclusively from 100% All-Natural Berkshire Hogs. Check it out!